On Friday the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas announced the 14 titles of Spanish productions (nine feature films, one medium-length film, one short and three TV series) to screen from 22-30 September in the Official Selection and in the New Directors, Horizontes Latinos, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera and Velodrome sections of the San Sebastian Film Festival’s 71st edition.
OFFICIAL SELECTION – IN COMPETITION
EL SUEÑO DE LA SULTANA / SULTANA’S DREAM
ISABEL HERGUERA (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Germany
Taking its inspiration from a feminist sci-fi short story written in Bengal in 1905, Inés sets out on a voyage of discovery around India in search of Ladyland, the Utopian land of women.
O CORNO / THE RYE HORN
JAIONE CAMBORDA (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Portugal – Belgium
Cast: Janet Novás, Siobhan Fernándes, Carla Rivas, Daniela Hernán Marchán, María Lado, Julia Gómez, José Navarro, Nuria Lestegás, Diego Anido
Ikusmira Berriak 2020
Illa de Arousa, 1971. Maria is a woman who earns her living by seafood. She is also known on the island for helping other women in childbirth with special dedication and care. After an unexpected event, she is forced to flee and begins a dangerous journey that will make her fight for her survival. Seeking her freedom, Maria decides to cross the border by one of the smuggling routes between Galicia and Portugal.
UN AMOR
ISABEL COIXET (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Laia Costa, Hovik Keuchkerian, Hugo Silva, Luis Bermejo, Ingrid García-Jonsson, Francesco Carril
Having escaped from her stressful life in the city, 30-year-old Nat holes up in the small town of La Escapa, in deepest rural Spain. In a rundown country house, with a crochety stray dog, the young girl will try to put her life back on track. Having dealt with her landlord’s hostility and the mistrust of the village locals, Nat finds herself accepting a disturbing sexual proposal made by her neighbour Andreas. This strange and confusing encounter will give rise to an all-consuming and obsessive passion that will completely engulf Nat and make her question the kind of woman she thinks she is.
OFFICIAL SELECTION – NOT IN COMPETITION
LA MESÍAS
Series
JAVIER CALVO (SPAIN), JAVIER AMBROSSI (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Roger Casamajor, Macarena García, Lola Dueñas, Carmen Machi, Ana Rujas, Albert Pla, Amaia , Biel Rossell, Cecilia Roth
The viral video of a Christian pop group made up of several sisters has an enormous effect on the life of Enric, a man tormented by a childhood marked by religious fanaticism and the yoke of a mother with messianic delirium.
OFFICIAL SELECTION – SPECIAL SCREENINGS
THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER
FERNANDO TRUEBA (SPAIN), JAVIER MARISCAL (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Special Screenings
Not in competition
A music journalist from New York sets out on a frantic investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Brazilian pianist Tenorio Jr, regular accompanist of Vinicius de Moraes, among others. This animated thriller moving to the beat of jazz and bossa nova portrays the days immediately before the Latin American continent was enshrouded by totalitarian regimes.
NEW DIRECTORS
dedicated to first and second films
LA ESTRELLA AZUL / THE BLUE STAR
JAVIER MACIPE (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Argentina
Cast: Pepe Lorente, Cuti Carabajal, Bruna Cusí, Marc Rodriguez, Mariela Carabajal, Noelia Verenice Díaz
The 90s. A famous Spanish rock star travels around Latin America in the endeavour to reconnect with his vocation. There he meets an old musician down on his luck, prompting the birth of an unlikely duo with every chance of becoming an epic commercial failure.
HORIZONES LATINOS
BLONDI
DOLORES FONZI (ARGENTINA)
Country(ies) of production: Argentina – Spain – USA
Cast: Dolores Fonzi, Carla Peterson, Rita Cortese, Toto Rovito, Leonardo Sbaraglia
Blondi and Mirko are best friends. They love living together, listen to the same music, watch the same films, they like smoking grass, going to concerts, they share the same friends, everything is perfect between them… but even if they look the same age, Blondi is Mirko’s mother.
EL CASTILLO / THE CASTLE
MARTÍN BENCHIMOL (ARGENTINA)
Country(ies) of production: Argentina – France – Spain
Cast: Justina Olivo, Alexia Caminos Olivo
Having worked as a maid all her life, Justine’s former employer leaves her an enormous mansion deep in the Argentinian pampa. The only condition is that she must never sell it.
ZABALTEGI-TABAKALERA
the Festival’s most open competitive section
ANTIER NOCHE / NIGHTS GONE BY
ALBERTO MARTÍN MENACHO (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Switzerland – Spain
Cast: Juan Francisco Cambero Domínguez, Pepa Gracia, Antonio Acosta Narciso, Alba Domingo Martínez
Ikusmira Berriak 2019
Juan Francisco is twelve years old and lives in a village in southern Spain, surrounded by ancient oak trees and solar panels. Through hunting with greyhounds, he discovers the close relationship between humans and animals. Santi and Antonio are part of a youthful modernity that coexists with the oldest of traditions. Pepa is a young mother who works as a seasonal worker. The choral portrait of this youth reveals a land of hares and donkeys, love stories, fires and rave parties.
BÉN TRONG VO KEN VANG / INSIDE THE YELLOW COCOON SHELL
AN PHAM THIEN (VIETNAM)
Country(ies) of production: Singapore – Vietnam – France – Spain
Cast: Le Phong Vu, Nguyen Thi Truc Quynh, Nguyen Thinh, Vu Ngoc Manh
A reluctant Thien must take the body of his sister-in-law, who died in a freak motorcycle accident in Saigon, and her five-year-old son Dao, who miraculously survived the crash, to their hometown in the countryside. Thien begins a search for his older brother who vanished years ago to hand Dao over to him. On the road, Thien has a series of sublime dreams and enthralling encounters that reignite suppressed memories and forbidden desires. Deep in the labyrinth of these phantom pursuits, Thien battles with his own existential crisis of what is worth living for.
CONTADORES
Short film
IRATI GOROSTIDI (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Santiago Fernández de Mosteyrín, Jaume Ferrete, Claugia Pagès, Iskandar Rementeria, Natalia Suárez, Marina Suárez, Mugerza Ronse
During the 1978 negotiations for a new bargaining agreement in the metalworking sector, a group of militant libertarians defend their radical stance before their factory workmates while looking on crestfallen as the workers’ movement falls to pieces.
MAMÁNTULA
Medium-length film
ION DE SOSA (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Germany – Spain
Cast: Lorena Iglesias Lista , Moisés Richart, Marta Bassols
Mamántula is the boy everyone wants, but also a giant spider cross-dressed as a human, fruit of a brief encounter in Berlin’s Tiergarten, in an alternative past of brutalist saunas, never-ending subway corridors and detectives in trench coats and hats.
VELODROME
the Festival’s biggest venue with seating for almost 3,000 spectators,
EL OTRO LADO / THE OTHER SIDE
Series
JAVIER RUIZ CALDERA (SPAIN), ALBERTO DE TORO (SPAIN)
